Marty's Reliable Cycle – Saving the World With Bikes

Matt Tyler scooped a 3rd in the Pro/Cat1 race at the Orchard Hill Assault in Amherst, MA on Saturday.

Ed King

“Saturday’s H2H race at the very technical Wawayanda course things went well. First top podium spot of the season !
With the support of all the great mechanics at Marty’s and a special thanks to Frank Ku my new Trek Top Fuel
is dialed in and performing excellent in all condition’s.”

Ryan Singer

“Met up with Matt Tyler and we head up to Amherst Mass. to race Orchard Hill Assault. The course was flowy with a ton hills! I was stoked to take 6th place in the Pro/Cat 1 open and proud to represent Team Marty’s Reliable Cycle and Clif for the race nutrition! Looking forward to the TSEpic and Bulldog Rump on my Yeti ASRc!”

Elana Iaciofano got second at the High Point Hill Climb on Saturday and then was able to rip the Tour de Lake Hopatcong 40 miler and was the second woman to finish the course!

Greg Whitman got 9th place at the High Point Hill Climb. He finished strong despite a small mechanical problem…

It was a great weekend for riding and racing. Thanks you everyone for the support and good luck out there!

Race reports (and pics) can be sent to eric@martysreliable.com to be published on the blog.

This past weekend Team Marty’s competed in the Giordana Gran Fondo
National Series in Butler NJ with hopes of a team win as well as putting
one of us on the top step of the podium for the overall. The team
roster included Joe Petillo, Stefan Tessoun, Dan Montgomery and Victor
Schepisi. Despite some nasty weather the plan was executed perfectly. Team Marty’s
was awarded first place in the Team Category, Dan Montgomery second place in the
Men’s Category and Victor Schepisi as the 2016 Highlands Gran Fondo
Champion

I’m going to come right out and say this is the best bike I have ever owned! Before you say yeah yeah let me tell you why.

I’ve ridden many bikes including road, cross and mountain but the new 2017 Madone has been a true game changer. My impressions after my initial ride was how easily it glides along the road. When I say glide I mean fast, quiet and comfortable This is due to advanced aerodynamics and the IsoSpeed decoupler. This is the kind of bike you don’t mind pushing on being every pedal stroke moves you forward and rewards you with speed. Even while climbing you can feel the aero advantage which some claim is more important then weight. Braking is very powerful due to the new dedicated center pull brakes. Big descents and cornering on rough roads are impressive due to a degree of compliance felt in the front end. Another nice feature is the integration of a Garmin mount built in to the bars as well as dedicated light mounts front and rear. I ended up doing my first century on this bike which proved that this bike can do it all from crit racing, group rides, centuries and yes even a recovery ride. Bottom line if you are in the market for a new bike or want that one bike that does it all the new Madone should be on your short list.

Electric bicycles (E-Bikes) offer the same awesome benefits as traditional pedal only bicycles. This includes cost savings if used for transportation, improved health and an ability to connect with your local community easily.

The extra benefit is improved efficiency in climbing hills or fighting the wind and a combined ability to increase the range of riding.

The cost of running an electric bicycle is significantly less in fuel costs than a car. E-bikes also do not increase localized pollution like cars and motorcycles. E-bikes can help solve environmental issues. They will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and traffic congestion.

E-Bikes will also enable more people to exercise which reduce the obesity issues in America. E-Bikes enable people who are unsure of their abilities to make the hills and the distance to have the confidence that they can finish their rides.

The electric bikes currently being offered by Trek Bicycles are a new, advanced generation of bikes. The motors, battery technology and design are industry leading. Trek e-bikes are equipped with either Shimano Steps or Bosch mid motor driven power sources. The bikes are all pedal assist. As you pedal, the assist comes into play depending upon the level that have chosen. There are no throttles. Shifting and e-bike controls are easily used and you never have to let go of the handlebars. There is a very easily read control gauge on the handlebars which tells you all the information needed to know about your speed and other riding functions as well as the e-bike specific functions. Pedal assist enables the rider to have more fun on their bikes and gives the rider an assist when needed.

The wheels are light weight yet strong with durable tires. The braking is hydraulic disc brakes which are very powerful and reliable.

Battery technology has increased dramatically in the past few years. They batteries are lithion ion batteries with 400 watts of power. The range is dependent upon how much effort is used but the range of one charge can be over 50 miles. The charging takes on 4 hours. Battery charging can be done by plugging into an ordinary household outlet. The speed of a Trek e-bike, because it is pedal assisted, various but it can reach speeds upward of 20 MPH. The total weight of the bikes has also greatly decreased and the bike looks, rides and feels like an regular bicycle.

The use of bicycles and e-bikes is somewhat dependent upon existence of safer, more easily accessible and destination driven and friendly bicycles lanes and dedicated paths.

The US Congress just authorized the FAST Act (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) which will dedicate $4 Billion to be spent in the US on bicycle and pedestrian projects. The best part of this act is that is authorized for 5 years will funds being available each year. This will enable cities and municipalities to plan and execute projects. The net result will be that there will be many more safer and appealing opportunities for people to ride and commute on their e-bikes and bicycles.

In an urban and suburban setting, the more dedicated bicycle lanes that exist, the more people will feel safer and compelled to use alternative means of transportation for short term commuting. This is the future for many of the upcoming generations of people in the US. Couple this new infrastructure with the desire for a higher level of fitness, the future of the E-bike is bright.

Team Marty’s Victor Schepisi had a great weekend of racing. He won the NJ State Championship Cat 1 title at The Rumble in the Jungle H2H XC MTB race #3. Here’s a quick recap.

Jungle Habitat is known for punchy climbs, rocks and roots and with the rain the night before I knew I had a chance to win if I could stay upright. The start was a bit hectic but once the race settled down I knew I had to attack. I found an opportunity to pass, dropped the hammer and never looked back. The race was nearly two hours of pure torture with my avg HR reading 175 bpm. The last 15 minutes was the hardest mentally being so much can go wrong in a race with a flat or mechanical but my Trek Superfly FS didn’t miss a beat. It took me 2 years of hard work to win one of these races. I was close many times, but this weekend it all came together.

A few weeks ago an anonymous friend and I headed down to the Stokesville Campground in Stokesville VA for the Shenandoah Mountain 100. For those who are unfamiliar, the SM100 is a 100 mile MTN bike race with about 12,000 feet of climbing through the Shenandoah mountain range in VA.

The race took place on the Sunday over Labor Day. My companion and I arrived on Saturday evening in the college town of Harrisonburg VA dropped our stuff off at the hotel and hit the local Outback Steakhouse. We want to bed early for our 4:30am wake up call and dreamed of climbing mountains all night.

In the darkness of the morning we were greeted with a surprisingly warm temperature which was encouraging for the day to come. On the 30 min drive to the campground we witnessed what legend has told. Jeremiah Bishop, an endurance MTN bike pro who is training for an event called “The Munga” in South Africa (look it up) was riding to the SM100 from Harrisonburg. I yelled some encouraging words out the window to him, he was running front and rear lights as it was complete darkness out on the countryside. Jeremiah is a bad mofo.
Back to the race: My buddy and I were riding our matching Borealis Yampa fat bikes decked out with HED carbon wheels and weighing in at an incredible 23 lbs! We didn’t see any other fat bikes out there, but I heard that there were at least 2 others. The others could not have been as cool as ours 🙂

We lined up according to where we believed we would finish which was at the 11 hour mark. This was a bit of a mistake as after about 25 minutes into the race we hit the first section of single track and BAMM, there was a huge traffic jam. With 600 racers out on the course and most of them in front of us we had a long walk ahead of us which caused a big delay in our overall time. I wasn’t too concerned because for me this was just a long day of training, but it was very boring walking through stuff I knew I could ride. On the bright side I met some nice people.

After I was able to get back on the bike, I pedaled at a very steady pace and didn’t stop this practice all day long. I passed people all day long, kept my rest stops simple and quick (with the awesome volunteers this was made much easier), and had a really really awesome race!

The course is absolutely beautiful, the volunteers amazing, and the scene is just plain old fun. I wound up finishing in 11 hours and 3 seconds or something like that. I feel as though without the traffic jams I would have had about a 10:15 finish time. I was extremely excited to finish in my predicted time, and after I finished I got to take an old school bath in the creek by the campground.

My companion and I both have small children at home so we decided to drive straight home after the race despite being very tired. We got some food, at a disgusting all you can eat Buffett which really hit the spot as at this point the owners of the buffet lost some money on us for sure.

It was a bit crazy for us to attempt this drive, but we’re tough dudes so we went for it. We basically drove for an hour and slept for an hour all night long and arrived in NJ at 5 am the next morning. It was a long haul after another long haul on the bike but as afore mentioned, we are a couple of bad ass dudes so it was not a big deal.

We had wonderful weather and great group of women for the Rapha Women’s 100K. Over a dozen strong female cyclists rolled out from Marty’s in Morristown and rode all the way out through the beautiful roads of Mendham, Peapack, Far Hills and Tewksbury (to name just a few of the towns we passed through on the ride). For many of the women who joined us, this was their longest ride of the year.

On the road

We had a diverse group of cyclists, including triathletes, endurance cyclists, cyclists who are newer to long distance riding, and even the recently crowned category two national mountain bike champ! The group was very friendly and supportive and we worked diligently to keep our whole group together as well as dealing with a few mechanical issues along the way. 🙂

Cookies + Bikes = Smiles

This was a fun, scenic and inspirational ride to all who joined us. Hopefully rides like this will continue to inspire more women to ride and to push their limits.